Beer, music and the local community: These are the three most important elements of a successful Oktoberfest celebration.

That being the case, it's fair to say that the folks running Longmont Oktoberfest know exactly what they're doing.

Longmont Oktoberfest has been an annual event since 1988 but has truly become a community benefactor in the past few years. The festival, which began as a fundraising opportunity for the Longmont Symphony, has grown to become one of the city's most loved and attended events.

Josh Goldberg, Left Hand Brewing Company's community and event manager, noticed the announcement. He immediately saw an opportunity to own the local Oktoberfest and to create an experience that fit Left Hand's mission statement.

"When you combine the passion of a couple beer loving dudes and the values of being a contributing member to our town, we had a nice little recipe to really recreate a concept in Longmont," Goldberg said.

Left Hand took over the festival in 2012. It has grown in leaps and bounds every year since.

According to Goldberg, Left Hand's Oktoberfest celebration is simply a scaled-down version of the world's premier Oktoberfest, which takes place each September in Munich, Germany.

The Longmont event is planned for Friday, Sept. 23, and Saturday, Sept. 24. As is tradition in Munich, the festivities will begin with the inaugural keg traveling from brewery to brewery to, eventually, Roosevelt Park, where Longmont Mayor Dennis Coombs will tap the first keg of the event.

Other festivities on Friday include brat eating and stein holding contests, as well as musical performances by house band Neue Polka. Additional sets from local acts Hey, Lady!, Face and Con Brio are also scheduled.

Upon first consideration the idea of having The Wailers play at an Oktoberfest maybe is a little jarring, but the group truly fits the Left Hand brand. The Wailers are known for their positive and rhythmic performances.

"I hope there will be someone in the audience with their teenage son or daughter, rocking out to their first show of The Wailers, and I hope those stories live on well beyond our era," Goldberg said. "The Wailers help us bring in a band that will be fun and friendly, good for the whole family, with positive vibes that you won't be able to resist shaking your head and booty to ... We're talking about world-class music that has never been to our town."

Event festivities will continue on Saturday with always popular malt sack races, more musical performances — including a set from Bright Light Social Hour — and, a Longmont Oktoberfest tradition, an attempt at cooking the world's longest bratwurst. Left Hand has teamed up with Boulder Sausage, Broomfield Sheet Metal and Colorado Seamless Gutter to construct a grill for a bratwurst longer than a football field. This year, the record-breaking weenie will be longer than 340 feet, surpassing the length of last year's 302-foot brat.

Goldberg hopes for a turnout of at least 10,000-12,000 this year. Although admission is free, donations will be accepted to help fund the beneficiaries of Oktoberfest. Proceeds will go to Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley and the Left Hand Brewing Foundation.

Veronica Jones, the development associate at Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley, said she first reached out to Left Hand around this time last year. She pitched the idea for The House That Beer Built to Goldberg.

"From the start, Left Hand was very onboard," Jones said. "Actually, all of the local breweries were excited about it and it was amazing to see how eager they all were for an opportunity to come together and help the community."

The House that Beer Built was first created by Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity in 2013 in partnership with Fort Collins-area breweries. This year, in Longmont, nine local craft breweries are teaming up to build a Habitat home for and with the Reyes family.

"By hosting fundraising events, engaging the community and coming out to actually build the home, they are really making the dream of home ownership possible for this family," Jones said.

All of the proceeds Habitat receives from Longmont Oktoberfest will go toward the construction of a home for Vicky Reyes and her daughter, Viktoria.

"Throughout this project I've been constantly amazed by the breweries' commitment and willingness to help," Jones said. "Each brewery was already doing incredible things to give back to the community before House that Beer Built even started, and they are a huge part of what makes our region so special ... I don't think you find this level of cooperation or collaboration in many other industries."

In addition to the multitude of Oktoberfest games and activities, Habitat will have a tent at the festival with a photo booth filled with props and signs. The pictures from the booth will be put into a photo album for the Reyes family so they can have a memento from the event in their home.

Since taking over the event in 2012, Left Hand has helped raise more than $183,000 for local nonprofits through Oktoberfest alone, according to Goldberg.

Over the course of the two day celebration, Goldberg expects to go through about 165 kegs of beer — more than 2,500 gallons.

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story